Charging for medical treatment

05/22/2009 - 04:09

I have to go for blood tests and the doctor was asking what my income is (I am 60yrs young), if it is OVER 10,000euros I have to pay..........(I don't have any income as such in ITALY), I do have a pension paid in the UK (over 10,000euros) through which I transfer monthly amounts to pay for my beer/wine etc................Can anyone clarify this ruling for me or point me in the right direction? I have no probem paying if I should pay but equally do not want to pay if I have no need to!Thanks in advance...................Also, since the new 'easier to use' (ha!) website has come about...................I'm struggling to find the 'search' button to enable me to search past posts.......................help???S

Comment

Hello there,In this, as with so much in Italy, you should do what you feel is right since you are auto-certifying your income to the doctor. Technically the ASL could ask you to fill out a form to this effect, but I haven't heard of this happening. If you have an income of under 10k, from whatever source, you should pay your "ticket". Don't forget that you told the authorities that you could support yourself when you asked for residency in Italy! In practice, lots of people with income of over 10k claim "esenzione" from paying. That said, depending on what tests you need, your ticket (or co-pay) is probably not going to be very high. My husband just had a very complete blood panel for around €50 in Umbria.

Hi Sprostoni sorry, no search box for the while.Anyway if you would like to read more posts just go at the end of the posts list on the main page of the community. Then click on the back pages.Or you may also try and search posts by topic, just clicking on the tag - next to each post. Or you may go on the topic page - you find the link on the menu or in the sidebar.Re your medical treatments question, Elicat is totally right. Ospedale charges you according to the amount of your income. 

Elicat is right a full blood test is around 50euro, but visits to a specialist can be as little as 16.50 euros, and where I live , in Marche which has excellent health facilities, there is a much shorter waiting time. Your GP is the gatekeeper for the red "ticket" which refers you to the health care specialists, but he/she may well need prompting, and if you are coming to live here and have exisisting chronic conditions, make sure you bring enough medication to last until your  Italian equivalant is found, individuals have to take much more responsibility for their health here in my opinion, you tend to carry your own notes and xrays around with you, I think people seem to take a much more active interest regarding health, and argue about where is the best hospital, who is the best specialist, and if you ask them how they are they will tell you in graphic detail without any qualms, my medical Italian is coming on well!A

Avery nice way is to enroll in  AVIS ( Thats the national bood donation association) in order to be able to give blood they give you quite a complete medical check,then a comprehensive bood test then you can give blood.doing this every 3/4 months gives you a wide spectrum on one's basic state of health of course they give you the complete copy of the test every time which if needs be one can take to one's doctor,if there's anything strange they usually repeat the test then send you to your doctor anyway.of course there are no tickets to pay this way.you can enroll at any hospital.at the moment in the Amandola area we're looking for more donors....

Thanks folks for the feedback.............Hard work finding this as there are SO MANY new posts !!I have re-posted a similar request which is all around income....................the nurse chappie asked did we have income over 10,000 euros.....................due to my limited Italiano lingua.................I couldn't understand if  we did have this as all our income is via UK pensions paid into a UK bank account.......................we then transfer a few grand per month over to live on.Is this few grand per month likely to be considered 'income' ??